


constellation of ink

by goldavn



Category: NU'EST, Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: M/M, Tattoo AU, dongho gets his first tattoo, first timer, is this rare, mentioned jren, mentioned nielwink, ongdong, tattoo artist ong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-22
Updated: 2018-08-22
Packaged: 2019-06-12 18:17:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15345711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goldavn/pseuds/goldavn
Summary: dongho gets his first tattoo, and luckily for him, his tattoo happens to be the popular ong seongwoo.





	constellation of ink

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: tattoo artist ong and dongho getting his first tattoo, Seongwoo has to call another artist to do the tattoo so he can hold first timer!donghos hand.
> 
> ☆ = signals that the next part will be in a different perspective i.e. changing from dongho to seongwoo, and so on.

Seongwoo can still remember the first time he ever visited a tattoo parlour. His cousin dragged him along when he was fifteen - bearing in mind his cousin was the one getting the ink one - not Seongwoo. Watching his cousin get something so beautiful and meaningful etched onto his body forever was something so thrilling to Seongwoo, which ended up in him returning to that very tattoo parlour five years later to get his own skin marked.

His love for tattoos was not just about the material image, but for the love and passion that it is made out of by the artist actually doing the etching. Seongwoo had queried the owner about how to dive into the world of tattooing, and because Seongwoo had already gotten a few pieces from the shop already, the owner had no worries in recommending Seongwoo to one of the best tattoo artists in Seoul to mentor him. It didn’t take him long to get the hang of the skilled art, managing to woo his mentor every single day

With what significant savings he had, he was able to buy the small bottom area of a building to act as his studio. It took a while to do the place up – painting, décor, buying the required equipment – but he made it work. He runs the store with the help of three other employees – Daniel, Jihoon and Jinwoo. Running a business with three of his close friends wasn’t exactly intentional, but it just so happened that the trainees at his mentorship were up to par with their tattooing skills. In fact, Seongwoo had known Jinwoo since high school – he was his junior. When Seongwoo had approached the three of them to work for him they had no qualms about accepting the offer. 

Together, they get daily bookings and are generally one of the most sought-after tattoo parlours in Seoul – partly because each of the artists have their own areas of design that they specialise in. For Daniel, it is scripture – his love for quotes and written imagery on the body made for beautiful pieces that people couldn’t resist falling in love with themselves. For Jihoon, it is coloured ink tattoos. Whether you wanted a beautiful pink sakura, a multi-coloured dragon –anything that involved colour Jihoon could do with no slip ups at all. For Jinwoo, it was black and white portraiture. He was known for his family and animal portraits that he could do in a number of different styles. And finally, for Seongwoo - it was the delicate artworks that he found the most interesting to work on. Whether it be thin geometric patterns, scripture or outlining – he loved doing them the most.

Normally the parlour is the busiest in the mid-afternoon, which is why Seongwoo made the executive decision to have the parlour open till late in the evenings – with a closing time of eleven. Ultimately it means less sleep and leisure time for all of them, but at least they are spending the lost time doing something that they love.

Wednesday’s normally aren’t the busiest, meaning that their night so far has been pretty breezy. Seongwoo is busy sorting out appointments while the other boys are either working on a client or making their stencils for their appointments later in the week. The phone rings, breaking Seongwoo away from his productivity spurt, and he leans over the front desk to answer it. “Hello this is Constellation of Ink, how may I help you?”

_“Oh! Uh, Hi! I want to make a booking for next week?”_

“Sure, which day suits you? And do you have an artist in particular you would like?”

The voice on the other end pauses, but soon replies and Seongwoo swears he can hear someone familiar waffling on in the background.

_“I was told Seongwoo? He apparently did a friend’s piece and they love it.”_

“Oh, lucky for you that’s me.” Seongwoo chuckles, “So which day suits you best?”

_“Monday?”_

“Perfect, is one o’clock in the afternoon alright?”

_“Sounds great.”_

“If you can give me your phone number, I’ll send you through my email address so you can send me the idea you have in mind.” The client, whose name he finds out is Dongho, gives him the cell phone number and settles his appointment time.

“It’ll be a pleasure doing business with you.”

_“Uh, likewise.”_

Dongho hangs up and Seongwoo sets the phone back down. Judging by the tone of his voice, he sounded rather nervous but nevertheless, Seongwoo is more than interested to see what this stranger would love him to permanently ink on his skin.

 

☆

 

Dongho doesn’t know how to describe the emotions that are running through his body right now. Is it fear? Excitement? The wonder of the unknown? The unknown being a tattoo gun and the feeling of it gliding across his skin to produce a permanent marking in his skin. 

It had started out as a drunken joke between him and his best friend Minki, after they blew off a night of bartending (one of his part time jobs) to harbour a broken heart. Surprisingly, their boss Aron bought their story of having eaten out at the same restaurant and caught food poisoning – even explicitly telling the two of them that he doesn’t want to hear the word vomit otherwise he just might do so from the sound of it.

Dongho had just broken up with his boyfriend of two years as he had been offered an overseas tour, and Dongho couldn’t afford to jet off overseas with him. Minhyun had tried discussing the possibility of him getting a job quickly as bartenders are always in high demand, and Dongho just didn’t feel like it was the right thing to do. Dongho stuck his foot down and it ended up in him having his clothes thrown in his face from a very pissed off and hurt Minhyun. Long distance was out of the question meaning the only option was to break up and that’s what they did.

Minki spent the night feeding his best friend all the different types of Whiskey his liquor cabinet held and it ended up in some pretty hilarious conversations. It started with Minki telling Dongho about the many times he and Jonghyun had come to blows about the silliest of things, and they all seemed to stem from the way Minki just loves to press his buttons.

“You don’t know sexy until you see Jonghyun burning from jealousy, even though he knows I’d never do anything to hurt him. It’s just… satisfying?” Minki gushes. “Getting under someone’s skin is oddly addictive.”

“You’re fucked up man,” Dongho grunts, but deep down Dongho can feel a fire burning which he knows is his body agreeing with everything Minki had just said. But that’s not the point, Dongho doesn’t want to hold onto someone who has already left.

“You know what you should do then? Since you’ve just gone through a breakup?” Minki ponders out loud.

“What?” Dongho drawls out, whiskey hot on his breath.

“A tattoo!”

Dongho scoffs. Minki isn’t serious, this is just another one of those spurs of the moment suggestions of his that never go very far.

“I’m serious! Jonghyun had his done by this dreamy guy the other week, and let me tell you that it looks like a legit piece of art!”

Dongho just stares at him, unsure one whether or not to believe him.

“Believe it or not, I think you need this. Something to settle any doubts you might have about your life right now.” Both of them take another sip from their glasses, to which Minki replaces the glass in his hand with an ipad screen.

“Look! Isn’t is pretty? 

Dongho has to admit, the tattoo is gorgeous. It’s a sentence that says “from the moon to the stars” in the most stunning font he has ever seen. It looks so gently crafted and he can’t take his eyes away from it.

“But I don’t like needles, why would I want to go through an hour or two of having them shoved in and out of my skin?”

“That’s not how it works, and Jonghyun says they are oddly therapeutic.”

Dongho takes a breath in, handing the ipad back to him. He pulls out his phone and locates his phone screen’s wallpaper. He holds it out for Minki.

“What is this? Why am I looking at this?” Minki asks.

“The picture. That’s what I would want.” Minki grins wildly and starts tapping buttons on his phone.

“Hey, what are you doing? Give it back!” Dongho tackles him and the two roll around on the phone, all while Minki is laughing his ass off at how Dongho is reacting. He finally gives him the phone back but when he does he shoves it towards Dongho’s ear – and he can hear a dial tone starting up.

“What did you do? Oi, Minki –“

 _“Hello this is Constellation of Ink, how may I help you?”_ Dongho pauses before answering, to mouth some very pissed off words at his best friend.

“Oh! Uh, Hi! I want to make a booking for next week?”

_“Sure, which day suits you? And do you have an artist in particular you would like?”_

Minki can’t help himself and starts muttering to Dongho. “Ask for Seongwoo, and do Monday! That way I can see it fresh after I finish work!” Dongho mouths for him to shut the fuck up.

“I was told Seongwoo? He apparently did a friend’s piece and they love it.”

 _“Oh, lucky for you that’s me.”_ The man, know known as the notorious Seongwoo chuckles, _“So which day suits you best?”_

“Monday?”

_“Perfect, is one o’clock in the afternoon alright?”_

“Sounds great." 

_“If you can give me your phone number, I’ll send you through my email address so you can send me the idea you have in mind.”_

Dongho reads him out his phone number and quickly tries to wrap up the phone call. 

_“It’ll be a pleasure doing business with you.”_

“Uh, likewise.” He hangs up the phone, and daggers his eyes towards Minki.

“You owe me something for this.” He sighs, dropping his phone on the floor next to him.

“Trust me, it will be invigorating.”

_We’ll see about that._

☆

 

A few days later and it is Monday, an hour before the scheduled time of Dongho’s appointment. He’d sent Seongwoo the image of his wallpaper (a lion’s face, not quite snarling, but not quite peaceful either) to which Seongwoo had sent him drafts of the final product. The guy is talented, that is for sure, but Dongho can’t shake his nervousness over the pain that the tattoo will make him feel.

The taxi drops him off outside the shop, and it’s nothing like what he had expected. It’s small but modern, and the outside of the shop has lit up star lights scattered everywhere. Dongho takes a moment to admire the exterior, before taking a few steps toward the door.

As he opens it a bell above the door rings, signalling his presence in the shop. He waits at the front counter, for one of the workers to come over and greet him. A taller man spots him and starts to walk across the studio to greet him. He extends his arm out to shake Dongho’s hand and he can’t help but notice the endless amounts of ink scattered over his arms. It’s not exactly hard to see either – he is wearing a sleeveless tank top which also expose ink across the man’s ribcage and the back of his neck. Surprisingly, Dongho isn’t intimidated by the individual – if anything, he is entranced.

“Dongho?” He nods his head.

“I’m Seongwoo. We talked on the phone,” the man says. Dongho notes that his smile is warm, and to some extent it feels as though he’s just stood in front of the sun – even though it’s appearance isn’t exactly the most inviting.

“Your shop is really something,” Dongho tells him as they finish greeting one another. Seongwoo thanks him and asks him to take a set on one of the fold out tables covered in a plastic sheet. He sits there and waits for Seongwoo to walk back over with a few small pieces of paper in hand.

“Could you take off your jacket please?” Seongwoo asks him. Dongho obeys, slinging the jacket over the end of the table. Seongwoo bends over and starts placing what a stencil seems to be, over different areas of his arm.

“Where abouts do you like it the most?” he asks. Dongho points to the underside of his forearm, just below the area where nurses jab there needles when they need to take your blood.

Seongwoo reaches into a set of drawers under the table and pulls out a disposable razor and gently shaves any hair around the area about to be tattooed. Dongho takes note of how gentle his hands are, how he really seems to take care of his clients – the act of it alone starts to settle Dongho’s insane nerves. He applies a slippery liquid to the area to moisten the skin, and carefully sets the stencil down.

“This is going to look really cool,” Seongwoo tells him, peeling the stencil back. The stencil had transferred onto the skin and just looking at it unfinished makes Dongho feel accomplished – but that feeling is much too premature, as no needles have actually attacked his skin yet.

 

☆

 

“Lie down,” Seongwoo instructs Dongho, and it’s not hard to notice his apprehension. Seongwoo has his own little policy – he will never tattoo someone until he tells them they can leave without paying, if they’re having cold feet. He’s secretly hoping that Dongho doesn’t have cold feet. Dongho lays down and rests his arm out for Seongwoo to prop up on a stool, as het gets to work doing the final little preparations.

Everything about the tattooing process has come to be some of the most peaceful moments he gets to experience everyday – knowing that he’s giving other something so meaningful for the rest of their time on this Earth. It’s why he has so many himself. When he’s not being mistaken for a gang member, he lives a fairly normal life considering the endless amount of ink of him – something many tattooed people in Seoul aren’t familiar with. But Seongwoo has come to know the local haunts that accept him in purest and true form, and doesn’t really stray from them – leaving him with the strongest sense of security.

He wipes the paper towel over the stencil, and gets his tattoo gun at the ready. Before he begins, he taps Dongho’s shoulder, noticing that he has been biting his lips the whole time.

“I won’t begin if you’re having doubts. You can leave and there will be no fuss,” he tells Dongho. He knows the look of the people who immediately regret their decision coming to his shop, but Dongho isn’t turning out to seem like one. He just seems… on edge?

“I’m just scared of the pain,” Dongho tells him, looking embarrassed that he had finally gotten that off of his chest. Seongwoo chuckles, which earns him a smile from the nervous client in front of him.

“I’ll be gentle.”

“Okay then, go for it,” he bites out and Seongwoo steps on the pedal, allowing the gun to start its magic. The first needle hits the skin and he can hear Dongho his, but thankfully he doesn’t flinch – that would have caused a majorly wonky line. Seongwoo is able to get a few lines done when Dongho is tapping _him_ on the shoulder.

“Can I have a moment to rest?” Dongho asks him. Seongwoo nods his head, “Of course.” He watches as Dongho heaves in deep breaths, and looks down at his arm to see how much had been done.

“It felt like so much more than that,” Dongho breaths, squinting to get a better look at the finer details. Seongwoo asks if he can start again and Dongho reluctantly says yes. He can through only a few more lines when Seongwoo notices his discomfort.

“Still not okay?”

“I didn’t really expect it to feel like this… like fire dancing on my skin?” Dongho replies. Seongwoo chuckles, and sets the tattoo gun down. He walks over to where his friends (and co-worker) are.

“Are one of you able to continue my clients tattoo, I think he needs a little extra support on the side.” Jihoon shoots his hand up, and struts over to where Dongho was laying.

“Wait, you’re not Seongwoo.” Jihoon laughs, “No, my name is Park Jihoon and I’ll be completing this for you today." 

Dongho looks at Seongwoo, rather dazed and confused. “Huh?”

Jihoon preps himself before taking a hold of the tattoo gun, sitting down where Seongwoo had just before. Seongwoo pulls over a stool and sits on the other side of Dongho.

“Hold my hand. It should help with the pain,” he tells him. Dongho quizzically looks at him, and reaches his arm out to hold onto Seongwoo’s hand.

“You can squeeze hard." 

And he does. The man’s grip is tight, and Seongwoo can tell he works out – _a lot._ Apparently, Dongho seems to like the touch from his because he seems a lot more at ease while Jihoon works away at the tattoo. Seongwoo decides he should try and distract him some more.

“So, what do you do?”

“What do I do? I’m a bartender, but uh I also make music for entertainment companies?”

“Are you sure? That sounds like more of a question than a statement,” Seongwoo says. Dongho laughs.

“No, yeah, I make music.” Seongwoo nods at the new information, glancing over to see how much Jihoon has to do.

“Yeah? What genre?”

“Mostly r&b, but I like pretty much everything so it can be hard to stick to one genre in a song." Seongwoo wouldn’t have thought this man would be a music producer, and hell, he’s finding it insanely alluring.

“So, who do you work for the most?”

“Uh, it’s a company called Pledis. I don’t think you’ve heard of it-“

“I have! That’s Hwang Minhyun’s agency! The famous lyricist and actor,” Seongwoo says. Damn, who would have thought this kid would have connections. Except, Dongho doesn’t seem pleased, in fact he looks bitter after hearing Minhyun’s name.

“I don’t really have much to do with him,” Dongho mutters, turning the other way from Seongwoo.

“That’s a shame.”

Dongho stays silent.

“You know, you have a really strong grip, do you work out?” word vomit. Absolute word vomit. But it seems to raise Dongho’s spirits so he shouldn’t be complaining.

“I try to four times a week.”

“You should give this skinny guy here some tips,” Seongwoo says, referring to himself.

“Uh, sure! But I do think you’re fine the way you are.”

That makes Seongwoo smile. He asks Dongho many more questions, does he have any producer friends, what his star sign is, do any of his family members of friends have tattoos also. Dongho answers them all excitedly, eager to distract himself from the tattoo, and soon enough the tattoo is all finished. Jihoon wipes it with a cleaning agent and tells Dongho to go and check it out in the mirror.

“Woah… this looks amazing!”

“You’re welcome,” Jihoon says, walking back over to where Daniel and Jinwoo had been sitting.

Dongho walks over to the counter, his new tattoo glad wrapped. He delves into his pockets to find his wallet, but Seongwoo waves him away.

“Please, you had a rough first time. It’s on me.”

Dongho tries to refuse, “It’s a lot of money… I just can’t-“

“Let me take you out for dinner and then we are even.” Seongwoo grins at him, and Dongho can feel his cheeks prickle with a red flush.

“You have my number so just call me whenever…” Dongho trails off.

“What are you doing right now?" 

“I’m supposed to be waiting for my friend to see the tattoo,” Dongho says.

“Would he want to with us?”

“What? Right now?”

“Yes, right now?” It’s obvious Dongho is contemplating his options, but finally gives in (he does find Seongwoo interestingly attractive after all).

“I guess.”

“Let me get my jacket,” Seongwoo winks.

 _‘What have I gotten myself into.’_ Dongho thinks as he watches Seongwoo walk to the staff room. This really was a unique first tattoo experience, and one he probably would remember no matter how old he got over the years.

 ☆

 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you prompter for allowing me to snag this rare pair with such a fun premise to explore! i hope it lived up to any expectations. if you did enjoy, don't forget to kudos or leave a comment, it really helps me know what i'm doing write or wrong or what i can improve with my writing in the near future (and for future releases coming soon).
> 
> ♡


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